Forward Deployed Architect

Atlassian•San Francisco, CA

9d•$163,800 - $257,325•Hybrid

About The Position

The Forward Deployed Architect (FDA) is a trusted transformation architect who combines enterprise-grade technical design with consulting-grade business acumen to shape how strategic customers adopt Atlassian as their operating system for work. This is not a traditional Solutions Engineer role, nor is it a hands-on-keyboard engineering role. The FDA is the architect in the room — the person who turns a CIO's ambiguous “modernize how we work” into a credible, phased, AI-native architecture and the business transformation plan that makes it stick across HR, Finance, Marketing, PMO, Operations, and Engineering. You will be embedded with 1–3 strategic accounts at a time, typically for 3–9 months each, owning both the technical truth and the business transformation narrative end-to-end. This role will report into the Head of Solution Architects and will require up to 50% travel.

Requirements

8–12+ years in customer-facing technical, advisory, consulting, or transformation roles.
A track record of owning and delivering end-to-end transformations at Fortune 1000, large regulated, or public sector customers — not only scoping them.
Executive presence and exceptional written communication; able to produce a memo, ADR, or design doc that stands up to executive review.
Strong workflow and systems thinking, including the ability to map complex processes and design scalable ways of working across business functions.
Comfort with enterprise architecture concepts: cloud-native design, integration patterns, identity, security, and data.
Ability to prototype, debug, and read code in at least one of: Java/Kotlin, TypeScript/Node, Python.
Cross-functional credibility with IT, PMO, HR, Finance, and senior business stakeholders.
Willingness to travel up to 50% and operate across customer time zones.

Nice To Haves

Deep cloud-native architecture experience on AWS or equivalent hyperscaler, including multi-region, multi-tenant SaaS, identity, security, and data.
Prior experience at a SaaS vendor's Forward Deployed, Customer Engineering, or Professional Services team.
Or senior architect / Principal Consultant experience at a major SI or Atlassian Solution Partner with a track record of leading platform transformations.
Management or technology consulting background, including Big 4, boutique, or internal strategy.
Domain depth in one or more of: DevOps / Platform Engineering, ITSM/ESM, Agile-at-Scale, FSI, Public Sector, Healthcare.
Experience designing on Forge, the Atlassian Marketplace ecosystem, or large Atlassian Cloud migrations.
AI/LLM architecture experience including RAG, knowledge graphs, agent design, and AI governance.
Relevant certifications such as ACP, AWS Solutions Architect Professional, TOGAF, or CISSP.
Public artifacts including conference talks, open source contributions, published reference architectures, or blogs.

Responsibilities

Design the customer's System of Work across functions using Jira, Confluence, Rovo, and the broader Atlassian platform.
Lead process and workflow transformation from current state to future state, including operating model design, Center of Excellence structures, RACI, governance, and platform team design.
Expand Atlassian beyond the development buyer into HR, Finance, Marketing, PMO, Operations, and other business teams through cross-functional workflow design.
Drive AI adoption for knowledge workers through practical, workflow-based use cases embedded into daily work.
Support adoption through change management, enablement, and success metrics.
Own and evolve the System of Work blueprint based on outcomes, feedback, and usage data.
Own the target-state architecture for strategic enterprise customers across the Atlassian System of Work — Plans, Goals, Work, Knowledge, Code, and AI (Rovo, Teamwork Graph, Atlassian Intelligence).
Design across the full stack: multi-tenant SaaS, identity & SSO (SAML/OIDC/SCIM), data residency, integration patterns (REST/GraphQL/event-driven), Forge & Connect app strategy, Marketplace ecosystem, and migration paths (Server/DC → Cloud, Cloud-to-Cloud).
Co-design AI-native workflows — Rovo agents, knowledge grounding, Teamwork Graph enrichment, AI governance, and human-in-the-loop patterns.
Ship durable artifacts — reference architectures, ADRs, Forge prototypes, Terraform/IaC modules, Compass scorecards, automation rule libraries — that survive past the engagement.
Lead executive discovery with CIOs, CTOs, VPs of Engineering, and Heads of Platform — translating business outcomes into capability roadmaps and phased delivery plans.
Orchestrate execution across SE, SA, TAS/FDE, Professional Services, Partners, and customer stakeholders.
Close the loop with Product — capture patterns from the field and convert them into prioritized, well-articulated product and platform requirements.
Mentor and uplevel Senior Solutions Engineers, Professional Services Architects, and Partner architects.
Represent Atlassian externally through conference talks, reference architecture publications, and Developer Community contributions.